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The New York Times just can't figure out why the economy of Venezuela is collapsing.

Faced with an accelerating inflation rate and shortages of basic foods like beef, chicken and milk, President Hugo Chávez has threatened to jail grocery store owners and nationalize their businesses if they violate the country’s expanding price controls.

...Inflation climbed to an annual rate of 18.4 percent a year in January, the highest in Latin America and far above the official target of 10 to 12 percent...

basic staples like black beans and desirable cuts of beef like sirloin are often absent. Customers, even those in the government’s own Mercal chain of subsidized grocery stores, are left with choices like pork neck bones, rabbit and unusual cuts of lamb.

How can this be, when Leftist dictator Hugo Chavez has done everything right, according to the Times?

For now, Venezuela remains far from any nightmarish economic meltdown. The country, which has the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East, is still enjoying a revenue windfall from historically high oil prices, resulting in a surge in consumer spending and lavish government financing for an array of social welfare and infrastructure programs...

Public spending grew last year by more than 50 percent and has more than doubled since the start of 2004, as Mr. Chávez has channeled oil revenues into social programs and projects like bridges, highways, trains, subways, museums and, in a departure for a country where baseball reigns supreme, soccer stadiums.

I don't know... those "unusual cuts of lamb" sound pretty nightmarish to me. Another Rovian Conspiracy has a good deconstruction (thanks to reader Gerald Hanner). And our DC lawyer/lobbyist friend comments,

I figured it out -- why Jimmy Carter loves Hugo Chavez. Jimmy envies the man. If only Jimmy could have put people in jail during his energy crises!

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